Robert Litwak is Vice President for Scholars and Director of International Security Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a Consultant to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Litwak served on the National Security Council staff as Director for Nonproliferation in the first Clinton administration. His most recent books are Outlier States:American Strategies to Contain, Engage, or Change Regimes;Regime Change: U.S. Strategy through the Prism of 9/11; and Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Containment after the Cold War. Dr. Litwak has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Oxford University, and the United States Institute of Peace. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and received a doctorate in international relations from the London School of Economics.

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Negotiations between Iran and the 5+1 group over Iran's nuclear program may resume in the next few weeks; and the Obama administration has reaffirmed its readiness for direct negotiations with Iran over a range of issues. From Tehran, however, the response has been mixed, with senior officials both rejecting and signaling a willingness to engage in direct talks with the United States. Is a nuclear deal with Iran possible, or are the two sides moving toward a confrontation? Three top experts in the field debate the issue. more

Although Iran’s mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle presents an inherent option for creating a bomb, the Tehran regime has no urgent incentive to build nuclear weapons. Current U.S. policy, which emphasizes coercive sanctions and diplomatic isolation to compel Iran to comply with its obligations under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), would fall squarely under the rubric of containment, even as the term has been eschewed and delegitimized in the U.S. policy debate. As long as Iran does not overtly cross the U.S. “red line” of weaponization, U.S. policy will likely remain containment in form, if not in name. more

Khosrow Semnani will present the findings of his new report, “The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble,” which offers a detailed, scientific discussion of the human and environmental consequences of a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. The report and the discussion will highlight a largely overlooked issue in the intensifying public debate in the United States over the wisdom of using military force to try to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. more

Robert Litwak argues that a containment strategy of preventing nuclear outlier states like Iran and North Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons is the best in a series of bad options for living with these states. The piece originally appeared in the International Herald Tribune. more

In this National Conversation, Robert Litwak and Thomas Friedman discuss whether countries such as Iran and North Korea, now branded nuclear "outliers" by the Obama Administration, can be integrated into the international community. more

In the Bush era, Iran and North Korea were branded “rogue” states; the Obama administration has chosen instead to call the countries nuclear “outliers” and has proposed means other than regime change to bring them back into the fold. Outlier States explores this significant policy adjustment and raises questions about its feasibility and its possible consequences. more

Mark Katz is a professor of government and politics at George Mason University; Robert Litwak is Vice President for Scholars and Academic Relations at the Wilson Center where he also serves as Director of International Security Studies. more

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Robert Litwak, author of “Iran's Nuclear Chess: Calculating America's Moves,” has spent decades working on nonproliferation issues and has been following the Iran negotiations since they began. Now that a deal has been achieved, we asked him to provide a concise preliminary analysis of what it means and where we go from here.

In the second installment of our recap of the Wilson Center May 2015 Alumni Conference, we hear from an a-list panel of analysts addressing the question, “Is the U.S. in decline?” From the China challenge to the “rise of the rest,” America’s place in the world is being questioned from within and without. Is the American Century truly over and are its best days in history’s rear view mirror? That’s the focus of this edition of REWIND.

Now that the dust has begun to settle on the nuclear deal with Iran, we asked two expert observers, Haleh Esfandiari and Robert Litwak, to provide preliminary analysis. Both have been following the story since the beginning and bring unique perspectives on the deal’s strengths and weaknesses, and also on reactions in both Iran and the US. That’s the focus of this edition of Wilson Center NOW.

"For Iran’s leaders, the technical details are the issue. They appear to be preparing the Iranian people for the possibility that no agreement will be reached and, if so, that failure will be blamed on the intransigence of America and its negotiating partners, rather than any shortcoming on Iran’s part," write Haleh Esfandiari and Robert Litwak.

"Western negotiators and Iran had more than a year to reach a comprehensive deal. Despite repeated assertions that Nov. 24 was a firm deadline, it seems that neither side took the date seriously," write Haleh Esfandiari and Robert S. Litwak.

With the latest deadline approaching, P5+1 and Iranian negotiators are attempting to make headway on a long awaited deal over Iran’s nuclear program. Is a deal possible or likely? What will it take to reach a compromise? And if talks break down, what are the consequences? Robert Litwak has been following the story and provides an overview of the possibilities in this edition of Wilson Center NOW.

On the eve of the latest deadline for a potential deal with Iran over its nuclear program, Robert Litwak has authored an insightful study that considers the technical and political contexts for a possible resolution. He identifies a core question --- Is Iran a “revolutionary state” or an “ordinary country”?

Mike Van Dusen is ending his fifteen-year tenure as the Wilson Center’s chief operating officer, and we his colleagues cannot let the occasion pass without celebrating not just the quantity of those years, but their quality.

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In this podcast, four analysts and observers of Iran, Middle Eastern politics, and U.S. foreign policy assess the state of the current deal, the implications of this accord and the consequences for the region.

On Governance: What It Is, What It Measures and Its Policy Uses, the latest book by Wilson Center Fellow Robert Rotberg, answers these questions. On Tuesday, April 28, we examined these questions of governance on the African continent and globally.

The world’s major powers (the P5+1) and Iran have been negotiating since last January to convert an interim nuclear accord into a final agreement, and now face a November 24 deadline. As this critical date nears, please join us for this meeting to address the outcome of the negotiations—whether successful in yielding an agreement, extended to allow further negotiations, or at a point of breakdown. What are the implications for U.S. policy toward Iran moving forward, as well as for the broader global effort to forestall the proliferation of nuclear weapons? This event honors the late Michael Adler, distinguished journalist and Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center, whose illuminating work improved the quality of public discourse on this vital issue.

In Restraint, Barry R. Posen argues that the United States has grown incapable of moderating its ambitions in international politics. After setting out the political implications of restraint as a guiding principle, Posen sketches the appropriate military forces and posture that would support such a strategy.

While Western attention is caught by the rise of the so-called "Islamic State", the real story may be the dissolution of order in the Middle East. How do we understand ongoing political and geopolitical shifts in the region and the rise of new types of actors such as the "Islamic State"? And what, if anything, can and should Western powers do?

When are nuclear agreements successfully negotiated? A combination of factors—technical, domestic political, and strategic—enabled Washington and New Delhi to conclude a civil nuclear accord in 2008. The US-India case offers useful lessons for negotiations in progress with Iran, and for possible future nuclear accommodation with Pakistan and North Korea.

The P5+1 and Iran have been negotiating since last January under a six-month deadline to convert an interim nuclear accord into a final agreement. This meeting, scheduled one day after that deadline, addressed the outcome of the negotiations—whether successful in yielding an agreement, extended to allow further negotiations, or at a point of breakdown. What are the implications for U.S. policy toward Iran moving forward? The meeting featured discussion of the new Middle East Program monograph by Robert Litwak, vice president for scholars and director of international security studies at the Wilson Center.

A final deal with Iran will have to sort out a dizzying array of timetables and disparate interpretation of terms. To assess this period of pivotal diplomacy, an unprecedented coalition of eight Washington think tanks and organizations is hosting three discussions to coincide with the last three rounds of talks This second event explores key conflicts and possible trade-offs.

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The nuclear agreement with Iran is a deal, not a grand bargain. In both Iran and America, the issue is a proxy for a more fundamental debate—in Tehran, about its identity—revolutionary state versus ordinary country—and relationship to the outside world; in Washington, about whether the U.S. objective toward Iran should be behavior change or regime change. This embedded status accounts for the protracted length of the negotiations and the sharply divergent reactions in the United States to the agreement.

The new Middle East Program monograph "Iran's Nuclear Chess: Calculating America's Moves" by Robert Litwak, vice president for scholars and director of international security studies at the Wilson Center, addresses the nuclear negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran and the implications for U.S. policy toward Iran.

Although Iran’s mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle presents an inherent option for creating a bomb, the Tehran regime has no urgent incentive to build nuclear weapons. Current U.S. policy, which emphasizes coercive sanctions and diplomatic isolation to compel Iran to comply with its obligations under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), would fall squarely under the rubric of containment, even as the term has been eschewed and delegitimized in the U.S. policy debate. As long as Iran does not overtly cross the U.S. “red line” of weaponization, U.S. policy will likely remain containment in form, if not in name.

In the Bush era, Iran and North Korea were branded “rogue” states; the Obama administration has chosen instead to call the countries nuclear “outliers” and has proposed means other than regime change to bring them back into the fold. Outlier States explores this significant policy adjustment and raises questions about its feasibility and its possible consequences.

Regime Change examines the contrasting precedents set with Iraq and Libya and analyzes the pressing crises with North Korea and Iran. This compelling book clarifies and critiques the terms in which today’s vital foreign policy and security debate is being conducted.

Robert Litwak traces the origins and development of rogue state policy and then assesses its efficacy through detailed case studies of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. In place of a generic and constricting strategy, he argues for the development of “differentiated” strategies of containment, tailored to the particular circumstances within individual states.

Mark Mazzetti, Former Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar and National Security Correspondent for The New York Times, discusses his new book, The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth.

Mark Katz is a professor of government and politics at George Mason University; Robert Litwak is Vice President for Scholars and Academic Relations at the Wilson Center where he also serves as Director of International Security Studies.

Robert Hathaway is director of the Wilson Center's Asia program. Bob served for 12 years on the staff for the foreign affairs committee of the US House of Representatives. Robert Litwak is the Center's vice president for programs and director of International Security Studies. A former director of non-proliferation for the National Security Council, Rob is also a consultant to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Nobuo Fukuda is the Japan scholar at the Wilson Center. Nobuo is a journalist with more than 25 years of experience with the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

Michael Adler is a Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar. As a journalist in Vienna he reported on the International Atomic Energy Agency and he is now working on a book about diplomacy in the Iranian nuclear crisis. Robert Litwak is the Wilson Center's Vice President for Programs and also serves as Director of International Security Studies. Previously, he served as director for non-proliferation for the National Security Council.

Michael Adler is a Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar. As a journalist in Vienna he reported on the International Atomic Energy Agency and he is now working on a book about diplomacy in the Iranian nuclear crisis. Robert Litwak is the Wilson Center's Vice President for Programs and also serves as Director of International Security Studies. Previously, he served as director for non-proliferation for the National Security Council.